A Legend of Ability
by readeradv
Summary: Ash returns from three years of training in exile to start a new life, but when the Pyramid King discovers an ancient prophecy and a shadowy organization starts making national news, he must fight to save the world once more. T for violence and language.
1. A Long Expected Reunion

A/N: I'm baaaack! Here is the rebooted version of A Legend of Ability, now split into three Acts and with plot revised, thought out, and pruned. Remember that silly gems thing? Yeah, don't. If you're wondering what happened to my other epic stories that never got updated, I've removed them for now. I may or may not bring them back at a later time, depending on inspiration, time, and motivation.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything of importance other than my own mind.

**Back Again**

Act One in a Tale by readerADV

Chapter One: A Long-expected Reunion

The wild man's blue jacket and long black hair tamed only by a golden bandana waved in the breeze as he ran down the mountain, his black shirt blown tight over powerful muscles and strong legs flashing through the holes in his jeans as he agilely darted around trees and over fallen branches, stepping incredibly lightly for someone wearing combat boots, racing a yellow mouse as he rushed to see an old friend again, one he hadn't seen in almost a decade.

A Rhyhorn noticed them coming and roared his challenge as he stood in their way, but the wild man just leapt, flipped, landed in a hand-stand on the beast's back, and spring-boarded off feet-first to the other side, forming twin blue-white orbs in his hands before pushing them at the beast where they exploded as the mouse front-flipped over it.

Swinging around a small lake, they came across a lavender-haired woman of graceful proportions dressed in a white collared button-down shirt with gold trim and buttons and a severe v-neck and simple jeans the same color as her hair. She looked up at them in surprise as first the mouse and then the wild man skidded to a stop five feet from her.

"No fair! You cheated!" the wild man said, looking at the mouse with a half-indignant, half-injured expression on his face. The mouse responded by sticking his tongue out at his partner.

The woman's giggle reminded them of her presence, and the wild man grinned at her. "Well, I'm glad it was easier to find you this time than it was ten years ago, Anabel."

"Huh?" Anabel looked at the man again, searching her memory until she recognized the mouse, the birthmarks on the man's cheeks shaped like the mouse's tail, and the cheerful expression in the wild man's eyes. "...Ash? Ash Ketchum?"

The wild man's grin widened. "Yup. Long time no see, Anabel."

"What's up?"

"I thought I'd take another shot at reading your heart like you asked me to back when I was training for our rematch."

Anabel blushed, but nodded. "Think you can do it this time?"

Ash leaned back and looked up at the sky. "Let's see… You're happy to see me again, you're curious about whether I can actually do this, and you're blushing because you've been in love with me ever since Tauros pushed us into this lake ten years ago." He looked back at her with a smirk. "Am I right?"

The Salon Maiden blushed redder and nodded again. "How-" She cut off as they heard the loud screech of a car's brakes, followed by the sound of a car slamming into a tree and the buzzing of angry Beedrill.


	2. An Unexpected Reunion

A/N: Hello, here's chapter two! Anyone who correctly guessed the identity of the driver of the car that crashed into the tree gets a cookie. Just… not from me. Oh, by the way, please review. The more reviews I get, the sooner I'll crank out the rest of chapter three and start on chapter four.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything of importance other than my own mind.

**Back Again**

Act One in a Tale by readerADV

Chapter Two: An Unexpected Reunion

A Gyarados reared out of the water to see what was going on as four people ran out of the forest to the east, chased by a large swarm of Beedrill. Three of them ran past Ash and Anabel, but the fourth, burdened by the young child she was carrying in her arms, could only jump into the lake in front of the Gyarados to escape. The bee Pokémon didn't take kindly to that and surrounded the blue serpent and started stinging it. The mouse and the wild man looked at each other and nodded. The mouse hurled a powerful blast of electricity at the swarming bug types, dropping them all as the Gyarados roared in pain and anger. The wild man formed a blue ball with a pale green center between his hands and hurled it at the thrashing water type, slamming it backwards into the lake. Everyone held their breaths for a moment before it lifted its head back above the surface, now smiling gently as Ash dropped to his knees, breathing hard and visibly sweating and the pair in the lake resurfaced.

Anabel gasped. "Ash, what's wrong?"

"Damn Aura Sphere took a lot out of me…" Ash looked over at the young man pulling himself out of the lake and groaned. The three who had run past Ash and Anabel walked up to them to see what was wrong, but Ash waved them off. "Just my luck. First day back in civilization and I have to save Dee Dee's sorry ass from a swarm of Beedrill." He looked at the younger of the two women disgustedly.

The blunette glared at him. "You!" she spat. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

Ash ignored her. "Let me guess… Mr Know-It-All here," he nodded at the dark haired young man, "is here because wants to battle Anabel, she," he gestured at the woman who had jumped into the lake "is here to support her brother, and Dee Dee," he gestured with a single finger, "is here because May hasn't figured out that she's got fifteen other women and a few men squirreled away somewhere she visits every chance she gets." He looked at the fat man in the Hawaiian shirt. "I was wondering if that offer's still open."

"Yup."

Ash grinned. "Let's make Mr Insufferable Know-It-All's challenge a bit harder."

The fat man laughed, but the young man protested, "What do you mean, 'Mr Insufferable Know-It-All?"

"What, you don't know everything, Max?"

"Yeah, I don't know why you called my sister a lying, cheating slut!"

"What, she didn't tell you about that? I found her in bed with Dee Dee one night when I got home late after a business trip. I was tired, hungry, and not a little bit upset." Ash sighed, got up, and started walking away, but paused as he felt a tug on his pant leg.

A small blonde girl in a soaking wet orange dress looked up at him with a face unblemished except for two zigzag birthmarks under large chocolate-brown eyes and asked, "Daddy, why won't you look at Mommy?"

Ash knelt next to her to look her in the eyes. "Because Daddy said some really mean things to Mommy the last time he saw her and doesn't think she can forgive him for it."

Dawn scoffed. "She has no reason to."

"Dawn, hush. I was wrong that night and we both know it," the other woman present said, walking over to her daughter and Ash. She crouched next to them and wrapped her arms around them. "Ash, I never hated you for what you said that night. When you sent those divorce papers, I didn't even think about it. I just burned them."

Ash looked at her in surprise. "May… That was just the final piece. Our marriage was falling apart long before that. Looking back, the main reason I spent so much time away from you back then is because I didn't want to face the fact that I was beginning to realize I've never actually loved you like that. You've always been like a sister to me." He looked at their daughter. "I don't know if I would've stayed if I'd known you were pregnant at the time… Even if I had known, I wouldn't have expected you to tell her about me."

"How could I not tell little Ashley about you?"

Ash shrugged and looked at his daughter's dress. "Why'd you dress her in orange?"

"It's her favorite color. For some reason, it amuses Brock and Gary's assistants."

"Who're Gary's assistants?"

"Jessie, James, and Meowth."

"...Remind me to beat the-" he looked at Ashley and bit off what he was about to say, "snot out of those four for bringing up that memory."

"Daddy, that's not nice!"

"Daddy's not feeling very nice right n-" Ashley cut him off by sneezing in his face. "Ew… Let's get you two to Anabel's house and dried off."

"And you can crawl back under whatever rock you've been hiding under for the last three years, you stupid motherf-" Ash hurled a small orb at Dawn over his shoulder, cutting her off mid-word and knocking her out.


	3. Roast Mutton

A/N: Tolkien-themed titles? I have no idea what you're talking about.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything of importance other than my own mind.

**Back Again**

Act One in a Tale by readerADV

Chapter Three: Roast Mutton, or That Little Blonde Demon

The fat man, the man in glasses, and the woman in red looked back and forth between Ash and Dawn. "Whoa, what did you do to her?" the fat man asked.

"I knocked her out. I don't think Ashley needs to hear that kind of language."

"How?"

"I put the feeling of drowsiness in a sphere of aura and threw it at her. It's damn tricky."

"How do you do that?"

"Aura is more than just life energy; it's the essence of who you are. At a certain level, you're always changing, influenced by your surroundings. That includes emotions and sensations. If I put a particular feeling into an aura sphere and throw it at someone, it can cause a change in their aura and change their emotions, but it takes a lot out of me. It really helps if I'm feeling whatever emotion I'm trying to put into the sphere. Of course, the more drastic the change, the less likely it is to work." Ashley sneezed again. "Let's get Little Miss Blondie to Anabel's house and dried off."

It was dark outside when Dawn woke up with a start. "-ucking son of a bitch!" She looked around at her darkened surroundings. "What just happened?"

"You fell asleep in the middle of insulting me, so we dragged your sorry ass to Anabel's house and got May and Little Miss Blondie into dry clothes," Ash said from a doorway. "By the way, if I ever catch you using that kind of language in front of her again…" He left it hanging, and the Twinleaf native was suddenly very conscious of how muscular Ash had gotten since she'd last seen him. "Anyways, your dinner's gotten cold."

"Dinner?"

"Yeah. You know, the meal eaten in the evening? You've been snoring for hours now. Honestly, how could May sleep next to you? You snore like a chainsaw." Dawn glared at him and got up off the couch she'd been sprawled on. "Oh, and nice underwear. I knew you like showing off, but waving Piplup print panties around in your sleep? It makes me wonder if you ever spent time in a brothel." He walked out of the room.

The Twinleaf native followed him through the doorway and found a bowl of ramen sitting on the table. "Just cold ramen?"

"Hey, it's not my fault it's cold. Be glad there's anything left; you know how much May likes ramen." He whistled, and the yellow mouse sprinted out of another doorway and up onto his shoulder. "I'm going out to train. Don't wait up for me."

The next morning, Ash received a very rude awakening. "Daddy, Daddy, wake up! Uncle Max wants to battle Anabel but she won't battle until you're there."

Ash groaned and rolled over to face his daughter. "Why does it have to be so early?"

"It's after eleven, Daddy!"

"...Still too early." He shut his eyes and rolled back over, only to have Ashley jump on him.

"Daddy!"

Ash groaned again. "I don't wanna get up…"

"Ash, your pancakes are getting cold!" May called from the other room several moments later, making Ash leap out of his bedding and scramble out to the dining room, but the only pancake he saw was going into his daughter's mouth.

"Where are the pancakes?"

"You took so long that Ashley already ate all of them. She definitely takes after you."

Ash glowered at her. "Not nice." He started to head back towards the room he and Max had been given to sleep in.

"Oh no you don't!" She grabbed him by the collar and tried to stop him.

Ash laughed. "You think you can overpower me? I've been working out every day for years now." He picked her up easily. "Hmm, you need to eat more. I'd swear you're no heavier than a feather."

May stuck her tongue out at him, then sniffed. "Ew, go take a shower, stinky!"

"I just took one last night!"

"And you smell like it was the first time since-" she cut off. "Just go take a shower, please?" She gave him a pleading look she knew he couldn't resist.

"Alright…"

An hour later, the mouse sat on the wild man's shoulder as he stood leaning against a wall near a bench on which sat May, Dawn, and Scott.

"Daddy, why are your eyes closed?" Ashley asked from her mother's lap.

Ash smirked. "I can see more of the battle if my eyes are closed."

"Really?"

"Really really." Ashley giggled as the referee finished announcing the rules of the battle.

"Go, my friend!"

"You're up, Ampharos!"

A yellow and brown fox-like Pokémon standing on her hind legs and holding a spoon in each hand appeared on the field opposite a materializing yellow sheep-like creature also standing on his hind legs, the blue gem atop his tail glowing faintly.

"Begin!"

"Ampharos, let's finish this in one hit! Discharge!"

"Alakazam, turn it back with Psychic and follow up with Focus Punch!"

The Light Pokémon quickly built up a massive electric charge and hurled it at the Psychic-type, but she just focused on the crackling attack and turned it back with her mind and as the tendrils of electricity hit the electric-type, kicking up a cloud of dust, she sprinted at her opponent with her fist glowing white.

"Ampharos, dodge and use Volt Change!"

"What's Volt Change?" Ashley asked curiously.

"It's a hit-and-run attack. After hitting the target, the user returns to its trainer, except when the trainer has no other Pokémon available."

Ampharos ducked under Alakazam's punch and spun, lashing his sparking tail at Alakazam's legs and knocking her off her feet, then turned into red light and returned into her Poké Ball.

"You're up, Mightyena!"

A grey and black hound materialized on the field behind the Salon Maiden's Pokémon and voiced a strangely vicious howl. Alakazam was visibly intimidated.

"Mightyena, use Crunch!"

"Alakazam, Focus Punch!"

Mightyena pounced on his opponent and sunk his wickedly sharp teeth into her left arm, but the spoon-carrying Pokémon's right fist began glowing again before she slammed it into the side of his head, forcing the Bite Pokémon to let go and back off.

"Use Focus Punch again!"

"Dodge and use Poison Fang!"

Alakazam kept her fist glowing and charged at the Dark type, whose fangs were now glowing dark purple. As the black Pokémon sidestepped around his opposite's fist and bit into her arm, Ashley asked, "Why does Anabel keep using the same attack over and over?"

Ash smiled at his daughter, though his eyes were still closed. "Alakazam's psychic-type moves won't do anything against Mightyena since it's a dark-type." He indicated the two Pokémon as they stood facing each other on the field, panting. "You see how Mightyena's head is turned so his right side is facing Max?" Ashley nodded. "It looks like that Focus Punch to the face deafened his left ear a bit. And see that second bite wound on Alakazam's arm is slightly purple?" Ashley nodded again. "It means Alakazam's poisoned. She'll keep taking damage from that if the battle drags on too long."

"Daddy, you know a lot about battling, don't you?"

"You could say that…" he admitted, making her giggle.

"I think I'm going to puke," Dawn commented.

"Why? You been looking in the mirror too much lately?"

"Why you rotten little co-"

"Alakazam, finish this with Focus Punch!"

"Mightyena, Fire Fang!"

The two Pokémon leapt at each other suddenly, one with a glowing fist, the other with flaming teeth. The latter sank his teeth into his opponent's left arm again, right on the previous bite wound, but she responded by beating on his nose a few times with her glowing right fist. Mightyena yelped in pain and let go, backing off once more. The two stared at each other for another moment before both collapsed.

"It's a double knock-out!"

The trainers returned their defeated Pokémon to their respective Poké Balls and called out their next picks.

"You're up, Ampharos!"

"Go, my friend!"

The yellow sheep-like Pokémon appeared again, this time facing a pink-hued butterfly with rounded wings.

"A pink Butterfree?"

Ash opened his eyes and stared at the Salon Maiden's Pokémon. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Daddy, you know that Butterfree?"

Ash sighed. "Yeah. In fact," he pulled a Poké Ball from his belt and looked at it, "I met her a long time before your mother got her first Pokémon."

Ashley hopped down from her mother's lap and walked to her father. "What's in there?"

"This is the first Pokémon I ever caught." He bent down, picked her up, and placed her on his shoulders. "I'll show you later."

"Ashley, get down from there! It's not sa-" Dawn cut off as Anabel ordered her Butterfree to use Silver Wind on Ampharos, which had the side effect of lifting the Twinleaf native's rather brief skirt. Dawn blushed and pushed her skirt back down.

Ash chuckled. "Is that really the shortest skirt you could find? I thought you could put that creative mind of yours to use finding an even shorter one instead of," he created an blue-white orb on his finger, "implying that I'm going to let my daughter get hurt." He threw the sphere past her just in time to intercept a stray tendril of Ampharos' Discharge. The resulting explosion knocked her flat on her face.

"Why you…"

"What, you'd rather that Discharge had messed up your hair? Oh, I get it. That's why you wear a hat that looks like a used-" he glanced at the girl who apparently thought his head was a drum, "you get my drift."

She glared at him and picked herself up off the ground as May asked, "Can't you two get along?"

"No," they said in unison, looking at her as if she was crazy to suggest such a thing.

She sighed. "Three… Two… One…" Ampharos's Discharge, missing its target, came flying at the two quarrelers. Ash, seeing it coming, leapt up out of the way just in time to avoid getting hit, but Dawn got the full blast, making her hair go everywhere and sending her to the ground, twitching.

The Pallet trainer landed on his feet, using one hand to steady himself and one to keep Ashley from falling. "Do it again, Daddy! Do it again!" she laughed, banging on his head some more.

He glanced at Dawn and groaned. "Great, now we'll have to listen to her whine about her hair for the rest of the day."

"Butterfree can't continue! Ampharos wins!"

"Dammit Dee Dee, you made me miss the battle!"

"Don't call me Dee Dee!"

"Go, my friend!" A cream-colored fox with nine tails appeared on the field facing the visibly tired Ampharos.

"That one looks really cute, Daddy!"

"That one's called Ninetales, Ashley," Ash smiled. "It's said that if you grab one of its tails, it'll curse you for a thousand years." Hearing that, Ashley gulped and hid her hands in her father's long hair.

"Ampharos, Charge and then Discharge!"

"Ninetales, Extrasensory and Heat Wave!"

The Light Pokémon built up a massive electrical charge in a heartbeat before unleashing at his opponent. The kitsune didn't flinch, but with his eyes glowing blue directed the supercharged bolts into the ground midfield, kicking up a huge cloud of dust, out of which came a wall of superheated air which slammed Ampharos back into the far wall.

"Finish him off with Heat Wave!"

"Ampharos, use Fire Punch!"

"Fire Punch? What are you thinking Max? Volt Change would be the best option!"

The sheep Pokémon deftly sidestepped his opposite's attack and charged forward to strike him with his flaming fist, but despite taking several direct hits from the attack, the fire-type didn't seem fazed at all. Indeed, the nine-tailed Pokémon seemed to be glowing with an internal fire.

"What?"

"Max, you idiot! Ninetales has Flash Fire! That boosts the power of his fire-type moves whenever he's hit by another fire move and prevents him from taking damage them!"

The challenger struck his face with his palm. "Oh, right. Duh."

"Ninetales, Purgatory!"

"Ampharos, get away and use Volt Change!"

The kitsune's body started glowing and giving off an incredible amount of heat as a fireball formed in his mouth. The sheep Pokémon tried to put some distance between them, forming a sphere of electricity between his forepaws as he went, but the kitsune propelled the huge fire-sphere towards him with an even larger stream of flame coming from his mouth, striking the sheep right in the back.

"'Mutton yesterday, mutton today, and blimey, if it don't look like mutton again tomorrer!'" Ash mock-griped in a deep, hoarse voice and odd accent, making the other spectators look at him strangely. "What, you never read Tolkien?" Scott chuckled.

"Ampharos can't continue! Ninetales wins!"

"Aw, man!" The young man returned the unconscious Pokémon to his Poké Ball.

"You're up, Gardevoir!"

What looked like a green slender woman in an elegantly simple white ball gown appeared on the field, gracing her opponent with a smile.

"Ninetales, Heat Wave!"

"Gardevoir, stop it and use Psycho Shock!"

The kitsune pushed another wall of hot air at his opponent, but she concentrated on it and it stopped half-way between them. The Embrace Pokémon's eyes glowed for a moment, and waves of psychic energy crystalized as they hurtled at the fire-type, dispersing the Heat Wave as they passed through it.

As the psi-blades struck Ninetales, he started creating another blast of Purgatory. "Ooh, it looks like Anabel's started giving orders mentally," Scott observed as the psychic-type glowed white briefly before starting to form a ball of purplish-white energy between her hands and hurling it through the fire-type move to slam solidly into the many-tailed creature as the powerful fire-type move engulfed the psychic-type.

Ash realized Gardevoir was reading Max's mind as the fire-storm died down, revealing that Gardevoir was slightly singed around the edges. However, the ground around her wasn't so lucky; it was glowing red and looking lightly fluid.

"Sorry Max, but it looks like this battle is over!"

Far from looking disappointed at his impending defeat, Max chuckling, softly at first, but becoming a full-fledged laugh as a light appeared above them, near the ceiling.

"Um, Daddy, is Uncle Max crazy?"

"Well, to be hanging around Dee Dee, he'd almost have to be."

"Seriously though, I think the heat's gotten to him," May said.

"Yeah, he's definitely got a few screws loose right now."

"Hey, we finally found something Dee Dee and I can agree on!"

"Hmm, I dunno guys," Scott opined. "He looks like he's got something up his sleeve."

"Two words," Max said.

"What?"

"Future Sight." He pointed up at the light. It was huge now and hurtling straight for the Salon Maiden's Pokémon. He tried to run, but the light caught up with him at midfield, picking him up and carrying him all the way to the opposite wall and leaving him in a Ninetales-shaped depression several inches deep. The fire-type seemed to melt out of the hole to the ground.

"Ninetales can't continue! Gardevoir wins! Max is the winner!"

"Holy crap!" four voices rang out in unison.

"Heh, knew it."

"You don't have to sound so smug about it, Scott," Ash groaned.

"You're just upset he beat Anabel in one try when it took you two."

"Well, that too, but-" he was cut off by Dawn laughing in his face.

"It took you two tries to beat Anabel?" She laughed some more.

"Hey Dee Dee?"

"Yes, Ashy-boy?"

Ash's fist connected with her nose. "Ow! You broke by dose!"

"Of course. I try to always do what I set out to do."

"Ash, be nice."

"Trust me, I am being nice."

The Salon Maiden walked around the superheated battlefield to congratulate the victor, fishing something small out of her pocket. "Max, that was a great battle. If you keep it up, you might become as great as Ash someday." Ash chuckled and Max spluttered. "Here, this is yours: the Ability Symbol." She held the small object out to the victorious trainer.

"Alright!"

A/N: 'Little Miss Blondie' is what I sometimes call my little blonde niece… who's not so little anymore. =( She also sometimes jumps on her father to wake him up. Mostly 'cos I suggested it. *evil laugh*

I realize Mightyena can't learn Crunch anymore, but it could learn it in Generation III and is therefore able to know Crunch in Generations IV and V if it is traded forward.


	4. A Short Rest

Disclaimer: I don't own anything of importance other than my own mind.

**Back Again**

Act One in a Tale by readerADV

Chapter Four: A Short Rest

Later, back at Anabel's house, Ash raised a question he'd been wondering for several hours.

"Hey Anabel, where'd you get that pink Butterfree?"

"To be honest, she came to me. She told me that her mate had gotten himself a human and that she felt she should do the same."

"So it was around two years ago?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

The Pallet native pulled a Poké Ball from his belt and expanded it. "Well…" He opened it, revealing a normally colored Butterfree wearing an extremely threadbare yellow scarf.

Anabel looked at it curiously. "What about it?"

"Call out your Butterfree."

"Okay…" She did so, and the two Butterfree locked eyes. They stared at each other for a moment, communicating silently before flying out of the room together. "What was that about?"

"Those two have been mates for a long time." He sighed, deep in thought. "He was my first capture, back when I was just ten years old. Shortly before I got my fourth badge, the Butterfree mating season came around and he fell in love with a very unusual Butterfree."

"That pink Butterfree?"

"Yeah. It took a while, but he managed to win her heart by saving her from Team Rocket after I gave him that yellow scarf you saw him wearing. I released him so he could be with her." Anabel smiled. "Fast forward thirteen years, and I'm roaming the forests of Mt Silver, looking for a good place to set up a semi-permanent training camp when I come across a Trapinch attacking a pair of Butterfree who happen to be protecting an Eevee cub and a young Ralts. The one Butterfree was wearing that yellow scarf I'd given him ages ago, and the other was rather pink. Having just spent a year learning how to use aura in combat, I was rather confident in my ability to rescue the Butterfree. Several aura spheres later and I found a rather angry Trapinch trying to bite my arm off." He winced at the memory. "Pikachu was getting the others away safely, and my only other Pokémon was a week-old Riolu. I really didn't have another choice, so I let Riolu out of his ball and asked him to use Blaze Kick. So now I've got the Trapinch off my arm but at the price of half the hair on that arm and I got a couple of second-degree burns. I happen to have a few empty Poké Balls on me, so I tossed one at the silly Trapinch. Several wobbles later, I've got a shiny new Trapinch who thinks my arm is on the menu. After that, I caught up with Pikachu and greeted my old Butterfree. He decided to stay with me, but Pinkie didn't want to, so they said a tearful goodbye and the last I saw of her until today was her flying off to the east. I turned to the young ones and asked them if they wanted to come with me, and they agreed."

"Wow."

"Hey Ash," May started, but paused, as if unsure how to say what was on her mind.

"You're wondering why I was on Mt Silver in the first place?"

"Yeah."

"It's mostly untamed, there's no one living there except at Silver Village, and the Pokémon there are said to be wicked strong. In the whole time I was there, I only met one other person." He sighed. "It's amazing how horrible humans can be if they have no qualms about it."

"What do you mean?"

"Never mind," he said quickly as his stomach loudly proclaimed that it was time to eat, making the others laugh.

"It's nice to see some things never change," May commented just before her own stomach growled just as loudly, making her blush.

After they finished eating, Scott observed, "I don't think I've ever seen anyone attack food as viciously as you two just did." The two grinned.

"Eating food is our specialty, just like using Heat Wave is Dee Dee's."

"Ash…" May said in a rather dangerous tone of voice.

"Hey, all I'm saying is she's got a lot of hot air and she likes to vent it."

"Hey Scott, I just realized you haven't told us where the Battle Pyramid is yet," Max interjected.

"It's up in the mountains north of Pewter for now."

"Near Rota and the Tree of Beginning?"Ash asked.

"Yup."

Ash sighed. "Dammit. I need to go to Rota."

"Can it wait?"

"It's waited two years already… It's related to my aura training."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, there's a unique kind of crystal there related to the Tree of Beginning that can store aura, kinda like a battery. Rota's legendary hero wore a pair of gloves those crystals in them, and his staff had a large crystal in which his Lucario slept for a thousand years."

"What happened to the Lucario?"

Ash smirked. "I held up the staff and he was released." He summarized what happened for the Frontier Owner and his daughter.

"I see."

"What happened next, Daddy?"

Ash smiled at her. "It's a really long story, and I think it's about time for you to go to bed."

"Aww…" She looked pleadingly at her mother.

"He's right, Ashley."

The blonde girl pouted. "But I'm not tired!"

Ash whispered in his daughter's ear, "I'd go now if I were you. I've noticed your mother gets rather nasty when she's angry. Just be glad she hasn't accused you of stealing her food."

"Okay…" She walked out of the room, sulking.

May yawned. "Come on Dawn, we should get to bed too. Max is going to want to start out bright and early tomorrow." She got up and followed her little daughter out of the room, dragging the blunette behind her.

Max stood up. "Uh, yeah, May's right, so I'm going to head to bed too." He left the room, leaving Ash, Anabel, and Scott alone.

"So Ash, where do you want your Battle Facility?"

"You got a map?"

"Yup." Scott pulled from his pocket a large map of the Kanto and eastern Johto regions and Ash considered it briefly.

"Here," he said, pointing at a spot several miles north of Tohjo Falls. "There's a large meadow here with a wide stream going through it." He considered it. "One thing: the stream comes out of a cave on the north side of the field. Stay out of the cave if I'm not there."

"Why?"

"I can't go into detail, but if you see a Tropius around there, leave it alone. Anyway, I'd like this to have a minimal effect on the environment, so try not build any roads to do this."

"Hmm, interesting. Any style in particular?"

"Make it a fortress. My other job is all about defending things, so it would probably be a good idea if I had a good place I could defend if necessary."

"The Battle Fortress, eh? And Fortress Guardian Ash."

Ash grinned. "I like it." He started towards the front door.

"Where are you going?" Anabel asked.

"I've been keeping a really odd schedule for the last few months. I thought it would be a good idea to train at night, so I've been sleeping in the morning and training all evening and all night. I'm not going to be able to go to sleep tonight and I don't particularly want to travel with Dee Dee's bitching, so I'm going to fly ahead."

"Fly?"

"I told you I caught a Trapinch, didn't I?" He started to turn to the door again, but Anabel grabbed his arm. "What is it?"

"About what we were talking about before Scott crashed into the tree…" she trailed off.

"Do you still feel that way about me?"

She smiled softly, stood on the tips of her toes, and kissed him. "Does that answer your question?"

He wrapped his arms around her. "I think it answers that question." He paused, thinking. "You wanna come with me? Flygon's been trained to carry a lot of weight and I could show you some really interesting things if we go to the Tree."

"Well I don't know…" She looked at Scott.

"Well, I need to get a message to the other Brains to meet so we can formally accept Ash as part of the Frontier, but we can do that at the Pyramid or the Temple just as easily as we could here, and there's more room at those facilities than here."

"Temple?" Ash asked curiously.

"You think you're the first in a decade to accept the offer?"


	5. Author's Note: Computer Crash and Hiatus

There probably won't be a new chapter for a while, due to my computer, which has a lot of information I need as well as the mostly completed next chapter, has decided to play 'fuck with user'.

Sorry.


	6. Author's Note II

Well, since my last note, the computer with all the necessary information has been fixed, but the battery crapped out and needs to be replaced. The laptop I was given as a Christmas present after the first crash likes crashing or freezing randomly.

I'll soon be getting a netbook, hopefully it will hold up better, but the files I need are in a Mac-exclusive file type (the first laptop is a Mac).


End file.
